Irish Potato Famine

The Great Irish Famine of 1846 was called "God's Famine" when an unknown, uncontrolable disease (which we now know as potato blight) turned Ireland's potato crop to slime. By definition, God's Famine is the general scarcity of food brought about by divine intervention. But the statistical commisioner, Captain Larcom, in 1847 found the total value of the agricultural produce in Ireland to be £44, 958. That was enough to feed the eight million people living in Ireland plus another …showed first 75 words of 624 total…

…showed last 75 words of 624 total…in a perpetual state of bondage. The whole agricultural population could be evected at any time if they could not pay their rent. The powerlessness of the Irish people explained by Cecil Woodham-Smith, a renowned historian born in 1896, when she states: "In Ireland alone, the bulk of the population wholly dependant on the land cannot look forward to a single years occupancy of it."(3:24) A peasantry was created which was the most destitute in Europe.